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No Such Thing as a Free Lunch!! December 2005
A potential client called me the other day to let me know that he and his wife had just attended a "free" dinner seminar conducted by another local financial advisory firm. The dinner was held at a well-known local restaurant and was well attended. He mentioned that the company must be doing pretty well to be able to afford to feed so many people.
As a result of the dinner, he was thinking of contacting the advisory firm to take advantage of their "free" initial consultation. "Have you ever thought of holding 'free' dinner meetings?" he asked me.
Early in my career, I had thought of using "free" dinners as a prospecting tool; however, while the dinners are a great way to get in front of a lot of people, the problem is that they do present a significant cost to the business, and this cost must be recouped. It is reasonable to think that these dinners must be paid from the revenue that the firm can generate from the fees and other sources of income that they can get from those who choose to do business with the firm.
Here is what I told this prospective client: "The free dinner is only free if you choose not to do business with this company. If you do work with this company, you end up not only paying for your own dinner but also the dinners of those who ate but chose not to work with the company." This is the only way that the firm can recover the cost of the meals and earn the revenue needed to cover general office expenses and their salaries.
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